Tackling 101
by laven813
Summary: Devil Bats is a thing of the past now that its members are in college. While they pursue the life of professional football players, being openly gay in the world of sports isn't the easiest thing to come by for Sena. Hiruma intends to play defense for him


"Hiruma, why are you so violent?"

Catching the football that Sena had tossed him, Hiruma carefully thought about his question for a lengthy time. His lips were pressed together firmly, forming a perfect line. _Good question_. He raked his nails over the rigid bumps of the football and wondered when exactly his confrontational personality came to be. Discovering the American military base at ten years young did influence him substantially, but Hiruma was already cunning and cynical prior to his military exposure. No doubt, Hiruma was simply born that way.

However, there was a thing or two that did severely alter Hiruma in his childhood, but he wasn't about to reveal anything personal about himself to Kobayakawa or to anyone for that matter anytime soon. Even if they had known each other for so many years. Mystery shrouded Hiruma's origin and wild antics for very important reasons.

Hiruma snorted and his lean muscular body twisted as he passed the ball rather seriously back to Sena. The shorter of the two grunted loudly when the ball made fierce impact into his hitching chest. Stumbling back a bit, catching his breath along with the ball. Sena became cautious about pressing forward with his questions. Regardless, he pressed forward anyway.

"I'm just curious. I mean... it was hard to get used to at first. But you're my best friend, it's grown on me." The amber in Sena's big brown eyes flickered and he smiled sincerely.

Scoffing, Hiruma further expressed his irritation by rolling his eyes and sifting his skinny fingers through his natural jet black hair that he had grown out during the middle of his university years.

"Give it the fuck up Sena. I agreed to see you so I could throw the ball around with an old friend on my spare time, not so I could talk about ancient fucking history."

Sena smiled and chucked the ball, it spiraled picture perfectly into Hiruma's arms.

"Suit yourself, I'll find out one way or another." Sena said cheekily.

"Che. You seem pretty damn confident about that you rotten little shit."

That remarkable monstrous smile that Sena had come to fear and admire for so long gleamed across Hiruma's angular mouth and he shot the ball back harder at the younger of the two. When Sena received it, he made sure not to wince or flinch. Years of playing football -playing with Hiruma in particular- had taught him to flash a good poker face when he needed it most. And now that their conversation was becoming curiouser and curiouser, Sena needed just that. He played along with Hiruma's little game and threw the football back to him just as hard as Hiruma had sent it.

"I'm _very_ confident about that Hiruma." Sena proclaimed deeply.

Hiruma's chuckle echoed hauntingly across the green space of field between them. He passed the ball back even stronger so. "When the hell did you grow a pair? You were still squeaking like a damn mouse when you would bench press 130 the last time I checked."

"Things change." Sena returned the ball the moment it hit his hands.

"Clearly." Hiruma snarled proudly, tossing it back.

They were exchanging the ball rhythmically and with feverish determination. It was obvious that both of them were trying to get into each others heads. Every pass grew more aggressive with each turn and the palms of their bare hands burned a fiery red by the time the glowering sun set quietly beside them in the framed sky of washed out purples and golds.

Somewhere between the football darting to and fro, something in Sena's demeanor festered into some kind of emotional tuft. Sena's brows furrowed together. A film of sweat glossed his forehead. His shoulders stiffened and the warmth in his amber eyes steeped into a scalding glare. There was something terrible turning in his mind and Hiruma could see it plainly.

Noting the radical change of mood, Hiruma narrowed a glare of his own before he continued to pass the ball.

"What the hell crawled up your ass and died?"

"_You_" Sena growled.

He hurtled the football so viciously that it wobbled horribly in the air and turned with a rogue flair at the last moment; jamming Hiruma's middle, ring, and pinky fingers in one bold strike. Three fingers on his right throwing hand. Hiruma hissed with anger more than with pain.

The ball bounded erratically on the grass and Hiruma's level of vexation soared through the roof. Sena meant business and so did he. Hiruma tightened his jaw before consecutively putting each finger back into place. He flexed them through the swelling and throbbing sensations and shortly after picking up the ball, he threw it back to Sena as if his injuries were nonexistent.

"_You_" Sena continued, pitching the ball just as violently as before. "Were never there."

"You're fucking joking, right?" Hiruma's posture slouched.

_This_ is what was bothering his ex-teammate? A bad case of separation anxiety? Leave it to Sena to always pull a metaphorical rabbit out of some trashy metaphorical hat. Hiruma would never admit for one minute that Sena was just as surprising as himself at times. Even if it was the truth, Hiruma would never admit to it.

"You mean to tell me that you only called the other night because you _just happened_ _to be in town_?" Hiruma pulled a stick of sugar free spearmint gum from his front jean pocket and stuffed it annoyingly into his mouth. "Bullshit. What did you really come here for? Spit out whatever the hell's bothering you fast before I change my mind about role playing a fucking therapist."

Annoyed that he hadn't thrown the ball back, Sena placed his antsy hands on his hips.

"You were never there," Sena repeated.

To calm Hiruma's itchy nerves, he passed the ball. His left brow twitched on its own accord. "Humor me, shrimp. What was I never there for?"

Sena pivoted and turned, nearly tossing the football again but his body froze in the last stance of the throw. Right arm outstretched. Left leg tight with the weight of most of his body leaning on it while his right leg simply rested at his four o'clock. Sena stood there for a moment, watching Hiruma with great disappointment.

"I admire you as my senior" Sena eased his muscles, standing normally now. "I always have and I always will. Don't ever forget that. But don't ever let that get to your control tower head either. I've been through some rough things lately and you've been here doing what you do best. Sticking to your damn guns and intimidating everyone that stands in your way."

"What-"

"Shut the fuck up, I'm not done." Sena sent the ball back furiously.

Tilting his head and arching a brow highly, Hiruma put the ball to his side and gave assertive-Sena his undivided attention.

"The point I'm getting at is that although you may be a part of my life, that doesn't mean that you're actually _in_ it. Did you even think about mentioning to me that you were going to dump Mamori like yesterday's trash? No. You fucked up big time Hiruma. I picked up every last piece of her that you shattered and she did the same for me not too long ago."

"That was two years ago," Hiruma blanched seriously. "We're fine now. You know that."

Sena's expression hardened. "You and her may be fine friends now but _we_ aren't. You've neglected my existence for the past four years and you know it. I'm fed up with only seeing you on the field. What's the point of being best friends when you're never around?"

"What happened?"

"What?" Sena blinked, taken back.

"What happened to you that made Mamori pick up your pieces too?"

The look in Hiruma's ferocious eyes reassured Sena that he was deathly serious about his concern. Four years too late to be looking that way in Sena's opinion, but he was glad that he saw the concern in him anyway. Sena had been hoping to see that look for a long time.

"Shin."

Hiruma curled his top lip in disgust. "What about him?"

When Sena looked away and didn't respond, Hiruma knew exactly what he meant. His mind raced and his palms glossed over with sweat. Shin and Sena... were an _item_?

Not knowing that Sena had obviously gone through some vicious ordeal with a lover, let alone with another man...

A quiet wave of anxiety washed across them. Hiruma gazed over Sena, suddenly realizing how much taller he had gotten after graduating high school. He was still a good three inches shorter than Hiruma but Sena grew into his own skin appropriately. His clean-cut brown hair was lacking gel, spiked less than he usually had it, but it was still very wild and very Sena. It suited him. Just like everything else had.

Sena was right. He really did fuck up big time. But Hiruma wasn't about to admit that.

"How long were you seeing him?" the quarterback asked firmly.

"Two years and seven months."

Ouch.

"Do you want to know the worst part?" Sena humored his old friend some more. "Everybody knew except for you."

"You never told me." Hiruma spat, losing his cool for a moment and tossed the ball.

"You never asked me!" Sena spat back, catching the oblong sphere and returning it angrily. "I had Mamori and Kurita, Suzuna and Monta, even Musashi! You were with her for eight measly months. I was with him for nearly three years. He fucking tore my soul apart when he left..."

Sena's voice weakened drastically, tears pooling in his warm amber orbs. Hiruma felt a hot guilty stab of empathy pang at his heart, the organ he absolutely refused to reveal to anybody. Sena quivered and shook his head, letting his salty tears fall shamelessly. He stood there trembling and crying like a fragile wounded child and Hiruma simply watched helplessly from the sidelines.

"I was so broken. I was so empty and alone and so fucking scared. Everybody told me that it was going to be okay, that my pain would go away and that I would move on. It helped a little but not a lot." Sena hiccuped. lowering his head sadly. "I waited for you to kick my ass back into reality. I wanted to hear you scream at me to get a hold of myself because I knew that nobody else but you was capable of that. But you of all people... you weren't fucking there for me."

The football hit the ground and Hiruma left it there to applaud the heartbroken young man before him. He grinned devilishly, letting a chuckle slip through his teeth and that chuckle evolved into a hearty, roaring laughter.

Sena was at a loss of words. He was too offended and repulsed by Hiruma's reaction to say anything.

"Looks like I helped you out after all. You moved on all by yourself."

Sena's mouth jarred in shock. "That's not the point you stupid asshole!"

Hiruma pinched away a laughter-caused tear from the corner of his eye. "That is precisely the point you stupid fucking dumbshit. We're talking about it now, aren't we? Regardless of whether or not I was one of the many shoulder's you cried on when he left you, I've always been here. All you needed to do was swallow your damn pride and tell me yourself. But you didn't do that. Why didn't you do that?"

"I..." Sena started stupidly, blinking through a mass of hot tears. Hiruma had turned the tables on him so fast that he didn't know which way was up. "I..."

"You?" Hiruma teased. "You what? You thought I was fucking psychic? That I would read your mind and run to your side and make everything better? No. People don't fucking work that way Sena. _I _don't work that way. If there's something wrong, tell me. Don't hide it from me."

Smiling bitterly, Sena nodded. He didn't bother wiping away his tears, Sena merely apologized in a quiet breathy manner.

Neither of them were seeing eye to eye, so Sena reasoned that turning around and leaving Hiruma standing there alone would be better for the both of them. So he did just that. Sena kept his head high in order to prevent it from hanging low, keeping himself busy by peering at the darkened sky filtered by billions of silver stars. It became night so fast and they were squabbling far too much to notice that the world continued to turn.

There was a rustling noise, a whistle of wind, and Sena was suddenly struck on the back of his head by what could only be the football. It hit him hard enough to nearly knock him out cold. He waited for the silver stars to stop outshining the night, stood properly as best he could and rubbed the sore pulsing surface of his skull.

"What the hell was that for?" Sena barked, rearing back round to face his assailant. When he fully turned, Sena immediately backpedaled as he discovered that Hiruma was now less than a foot away from him. He froze sheepishly, shying away, completely giving into his old self when Hiruma confronted him.

"That was for jamming my fingers you fucking brat."

"Oh..." Sena started and he suddenly found himself dumbstruck again when Hiruma coiled his long warm arms around Sena's shoulders.

Sena's eyes went wide.

To be perfectly honest with himself, Sena was absolutely frightened by this affectionate gesture. He waited nervously to see if Hiruma hugged him for some scheming ulterior motive. But as the moments dragged out into long lulling minutes and no ulterior motive of any kind came to surface, Sena's tension slowly softened.

This must have been the closest thing to an apology as it got for Hiruma.

Was he ever truly capable of anything other than mischievous malevolence? Sena thought lucidly. Was this really happening?

"Quit being so stubborn." Hiruma hissed into his ear and pushed himself away from Sena.

It took a minute for Sena to realize that he stopped crying. His cheeks were wet and cold from his tears. The night was young enough to keep rays of deep indigo in the distant skies and chilly enough for their breath to be visible. But as cool as Sena's tear stained cheeks were, the sight of Hiruma before him kept something in him warm.

Hiruma was always so cool headed ever since Sena first met him. He was a violent cunning creature. Unlike Sena's breath that came puffing out softly from his lips, Hiruma's smoky breath billowed from his upturned nose like a snarling dragon. Hiruma made everything look so daunting and effortless. Even his slick black hair gave his skin a paler, whiter glow. It gave Hiruma's presence a more overwhelming sensation. He looked the same as he always looked, but _more_.

Sena swallowed a thick lump in his throat and averted his eyes.

"You'll make things complicated if you fall for me." Hiruma grinned maniacally.

"WHAT?" Sena yelped at the abhorred accusation that he simply could not wrap his head around. "Close but no cigar Hiruma. Just because I'm interested in men doesn't mean that I would ever consider you as a potential boyfriend. No way. I would _never_ fall for you."

"Why not?" Hiruma pouted with great exaggeration. "That hurt my feelings, Sena."

"We're too close for that. Besides, you don't have feelings."

Hiruma howled, cackling so hard that his sides pinched and ached with approval. "You've got that fucking right!"

Sena relaxed his nerves at last. They teased each other on about things like how Hiruma's sailor mouth rubbed off on Sena over the years of knowing each other, and while they continued amusing one another, they completley forgot all about the football left unused on the field they stood in. The two of them went on and on about the old times, despite Hiruma's hatred of talking about "ancient fucking history". They laughed and smiled and Sena was very pleased with himself about his decision to talk with Hiruma.

Eventually they ran out of things to say and upon realizing it was three in the morning, the two college football players were perfectly fine with ending their visit. They bid their goodbyes and as a result of Sena's insisting that they needed to stay in touch more, Hiruma would only agree if he promised they would be honest with each other from here on out. Sena was more than happy to oblige.

It was easy to depart on a note like this. But it was so much harder to deal with the fact that there was something bothering the violent cunning creature so called Hiruma.

Said creature retrieved his football and examined it with careful critcal eyes.

"_You'll make things complicated if you fall for me_."

"You better not fall for me," Hiruma said to no one in particular.

He stuffed the ball into his gym bag and slung the strap over his shoulder. He chewed on his spearmint gum a little while longer and rolled the wad around in his mouth before blowing a rather impressive bubble. It popped. Hiruma lapped it back in between his lips and snapped the leftover air bubbles in the gum with his tongue.

"Too bad I've made things fucking complicated already."

* * *

I'm trying something new folks. I plan on releasing chapters to Tackling 101 monthly. Preferably on the 21st maybe? Anyway, one chapter each month! I'm a very busy bee and I took the liberty of challenging myself with a creative idea like this. I hope I can accomplish this because I have such wonderful intentions for this story. But if I do miss a month... or two.. don't kill me. I'm sure the guilt will kill me first. But really, I'm going to give it my all :D

Hope you enjoyed! Until next month!


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